How does life bear fruit for God? Have you ever really thought about it? Is it anything the person does that causes good fruit to start growing? I don’t think so and this is why.
In Luke 8 Jesus tells us the “Parable of the Sower”, which I believe gives us insight into bearing good fruit. In Luke 8:4 we see a large crowd gather around Jesus and we see him tell them this parable. After the parable the disciples asked him what this parable meant, indicating even they did not understand the parable.
Jesus goes on in verse 10 to give the key about growing good fruit for God. Jesus says “To you it has been given…” which I believe is the whole key. Bearing good fruit has little to do with us and everything to do with God. If God does not give a person understanding to “know the secrets of the kingdom of God” there will be no good fruit.
So right away in my mind I’m thinking, “if I cannot do anything, what can I do” which is sort of double talk I acknowledge, but nevertheless we are left at the mercy of God who gives the understanding. I believe the key in getting the understanding from God is in understanding the heart.
Verse 15 says “…an honest and good heart…” which is a slight problem because Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
In my mind the way to start getting understanding from God, so your life can start bearing good fruit, is this. It starts with an acknowledgment and agreement with what His word says about the human heart, my heart and your heart. It’s “deceitful…and desperately sick..” Once a person comes to realize this and starts confessing this truth, (agreeing with Gods word on this point) they are primed for God to start opening up more and more “secrets of the kingdom of God” for them. The more God’s secrets are opened up for us to see and understand should lead us into repentance and faith in Christ.
In Luke 8 Jesus tells us the “Parable of the Sower”, which I believe gives us insight into bearing good fruit. In Luke 8:4 we see a large crowd gather around Jesus and we see him tell them this parable. After the parable the disciples asked him what this parable meant, indicating even they did not understand the parable.
Jesus goes on in verse 10 to give the key about growing good fruit for God. Jesus says “To you it has been given…” which I believe is the whole key. Bearing good fruit has little to do with us and everything to do with God. If God does not give a person understanding to “know the secrets of the kingdom of God” there will be no good fruit.
So right away in my mind I’m thinking, “if I cannot do anything, what can I do” which is sort of double talk I acknowledge, but nevertheless we are left at the mercy of God who gives the understanding. I believe the key in getting the understanding from God is in understanding the heart.
Verse 15 says “…an honest and good heart…” which is a slight problem because Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
In my mind the way to start getting understanding from God, so your life can start bearing good fruit, is this. It starts with an acknowledgment and agreement with what His word says about the human heart, my heart and your heart. It’s “deceitful…and desperately sick..” Once a person comes to realize this and starts confessing this truth, (agreeing with Gods word on this point) they are primed for God to start opening up more and more “secrets of the kingdom of God” for them. The more God’s secrets are opened up for us to see and understand should lead us into repentance and faith in Christ.
Somewhere in this progress Regeneration happens (being born again), which right away makes our hard hearts not hard any longer, but tender and plowed up, like that like of good soil. That good soil allows the person to “hearing the word, hold it fast” in a new regenerated heart, which WILL “bear fruit with patience.”
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